The thousand-dollar mammoth remains buried in ancient ice

Poachers dig millions of years of ice in Siberia to find prehistoric creatures sold on the black market.

Photographer Amos Chapple spent three weeks in the poaching world that he described as "soaked in vodka" in Siberia, Russia.The ivory in the photo weighs 65kg, sold for $ 34,000.

They scavenge in the remote Siberia region, hiding from the police, drilling deep into millions of years old icebergs to search for prehistoric fossil animals.

Poachers spend months camping at frosty places hoping to enrich the mammoth fossils.This elephant lived on Earth hundreds of thousands of years before extinction at the end of the Ice Age.

Chapple photographer paid a group of poachers in Siberia to enter the mammoth fossil area . "I have to wait until my scammers get tired of taking their photos , " Chapple said.

Many poachers have bullets or flares to ward off bears. "Mosquitoes are everywhere, they follow you. When you enter the poacher's camp, vodka turns them into animals , " Chapple said.

Mammoth fossil hunters use high pressure hoses to melt ice sheets.Hot water flows into the river and causes the fish in the area to disappear.

The favorite of poachers in their free time is to drink vodka.